Gunmen torch tankers carrying fuel destined for troops in Afghanistan
following protests over Nato strike that killed three soldiers.
Mass evacuation as two young women allegedly gassed themselves in a flat in
south London, in a suspected copycat “chemical” suicide pact.
In a break from the New Labour era, Ed Miliband makes it clear that he is
unafraid of being labelled left-wing.
The Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force as well as the Ministry of Defence
are facing a considerable tightening of the belt when the conclusions of the
Strategic Defence and Security Review are announced next month but who
stands where on the cuts?
Gun battle frees Rafael Correa who was trapped inside a hospital by police protesting over austerity measures
Ecuadorean soldiers stormed a hospital early today and rescued Rafael Correa from mutinous police who had besieged the president and plunged the country into anarchy.
Army units blazed their way into the hospital with automatic gunfire and stun grenades in a battle which left at least two dead, dozens injured and enabled Correa’s swift and triumphant return to the presidential palace.
The leftist leader, emotional and euphoric, addressed crowds of cheering supporters from the balcony.
“What loyalty, what support,” he shouted to loud applause. “This will serve as an example for those who want to stop the revolution not through the ballot box but with weapons.”
The rescue was the climax to a dramatic day in which a police revolt over austerity measures spiralled out of control, leaving airports and motorways blocked, borders sealed, the president assaulted and businesses looted.
The protests were triggered by a law passed by Congress on Wednesday that would end the practice of giving medals and bonuses with each promotion, part of Correa’s effort to save costs and slim bureaucracy.
Ecuador is one of South America’s most volatile countries with a tradition of protests but nobody expected to see scores of uniformed men overrunning the main airport of the capital, Quito, forcing its closure and the declaration of a state of emergency.
It was just the beginning. Hundreds of rank and file soldiers and police took over barracks in Quito, Guayaquil and other cities. They also set up roadblocks out of burning tyres and occupied Congress, shouting “respect our rights!” and “long civil war!”.
Smoke wafted over Quito and sporadic looting left several banks and supermarkets ransacked. A state TV channel showed police trying to enter its studio. The channel said the police shattered windows and tried to cut the power supply.
Correa, a 47-year-old economist with a firebrand style, went to a regimental barracks to try to negotiate with protesters but was surrounded, punched, doused with hot water and almost blinded with teargas.
A government helicopter tried to evacuate him but was unable to land. The president was spirited to a hospital but police rebels laid siege.
“This is a coup attempt,” Correa told state-run TV. “They’re trying to get into my room, maybe to attack me. I don’t know. But, forget it. I won’t relent. They are a bunch of ungrateful bandits. No one has supported the police as much as this government.”
Civilian crowds loyal to the president confronted police, prompting Correa to address the throng from his hospital window: “If they want me, here I am,” he shouted and ripped his tie loose. “I leave here as president or they take me out as a corpse.”
The foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, led another pro-government crowd to the Carondelet Palace, the president’s home.
Latin American leaders from across the political spectrum united in support of Correa, as did the US and the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. Colombia and Peru sealed their borders in solidarity with the embattled president. The Opec nation’s turmoil pushed global oil prices to nearly $80 (£50) a barrel.
Loyalist army units broke the siege in a 35-minute gun battle that left at least two police dead, according to the Red Cross. One report said the president was smuggled out of the hospital in a wheelchair under cover of darkness as gunfire blazed. A four-wheel drive vehicle rushed him to the palace. At least 74 people were reported injured during the day’s clashes.
Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, backed his ally’s contention that the unrest was a coup attempt. Doris Solis, an Ecuadorean cabinet minister, disagreed. “This is not a coup,” she told CNN.
The head of the armed forces, Ernesto Gonzalez, said troops remained loyal to Correa. “We are in a state of law. We are loyal to the maximum authority, which is the president.”
Even before the protests, the government’s proposed austerity measures had triggered a political crisis and revolt by the president’s own party, the Country Alliance. Correa threatened to dissolve parliament and rule by decree until elections.
Correa, who has a Belgian wife, was elected in 2006 promising a “citizens’ revolution” to spread the benefits of oil, gas and other revenues to the poor in the Andean mountains, Amazon forests and Pacific coast slums. He defaulted on a $2.8bn debt, calling it illegitimate, and boosted spending on education and health.
He was re-elected under the new constitution last year but since then public sector workers and indigenous groups, among others, have accused him of breaking promises.
University heads warn proposed cuts to science budget threaten ‘an insidious grinding down of UK research community’
• Datablog: Alok Jha explains how science funding works
Britain is facing a major brain drain as scientists abandon the country for better-funded jobs abroad, a Guardian investigation reveals today.
Leading researchers, including an Oxford professor of physics and a stem cell researcher seeking a cure for the commonest form of blindness, say they are poised to quit Britain. Meanwhile the heads of several prestigious universities warn that proposed government cuts to Britain’s science budget threaten “an insidious grinding down of the UK research community”.
This comes against a background in which universities say they are already struggling to attract the best candidates to important research and teaching posts, and warnings that this month’s spending review could, according to some estimates, take as much as 25% out of Britain’s total spending on scientific research.
The Guardian has spoken to researchers in fields ranging from cancer and human fertility to nuclear physics, and found that many are preparing to emigrate. Professor Brian Foster, a particle physicist at Oxford, said he was likely to shift most of his research to Germany, having been offered a professorship at Hamburg University which comes with £4.3m to spend on research.
Dr Carlos Gias, a stem cell researcher at University College London, has decided to move either to Singapore or the US. Gias, whose research is focused on a form of blindness called age-related macular degeneration, said: “I have seen people from this department leaving to Singapore, and they have been trying to find jobs in Britain and they couldn’t. It’s not been just one or two [but] several of them, and [in Singapore] … they don’t have any problems of funding.”
Professor Don Nutbeam, vice-chancellor of Southampton University, said fears of cuts to the science budget and greater investment in countries such as Singapore, France and Germany would exacerbate the problem.
He said that he expected a steady loss of researchers and believed that Britain’s world ranking in research could be undone within five years. “There will be an insidious grinding down of the UK research community if the sorts of cuts being talked about are enacted,” he said.
Even the most prestigious universities are concerned. Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, who will become the vice-chancellor of Cambridge tomorrow, said that while his university was relatively insulated by its status, he shared fears that Britain’s international competitors were accelerating while Britain hit the brake. “Young researchers will always look to see where there is the greatest opportunity to fund the science,” he said. “We’re not talking about salary levels. For many researchers it is about the infrastructure, the facilities, the capacity to grow their groups, and anything which undermines that is going to make it more difficult for institutions to recruit high-level people.”
Even at Cambridge, the best candidates for posts in neuroscience and aeronautics have been lured elsewhere because of generous start-up funding. “Our competitors have resources to make available six-figure start-up packages for relatively junior staff; we can only do that, and at a stretch, for professorial staff,” a Cambridge spokesman said.
Major science funders have outlined areas of research that could be shut down if significant cuts materialise. The Medical Research Council is considering a withdrawal from cancer research to save £105m.
The Science and Technology Facilities Council fears cuts could force it to mothball major laboratories such as the £145m ISIS neutron source in Oxfordshire. Britain’s involvement in other international facilities, such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, is also threatened.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will close down studentships to manage a minor reduction in funding and will rescind up to £135m of grants already awarded if cuts are deeper.
Nick Wright, pro-vice chancellor for research at Newcastle University, said his institution was already having recruitment problems.
“I’ve got recent direct experience sitting as the chair of a professorial recruitment panel and candidates from North America asking us whether UK research funding was going to be cut and what the prognosis was for the future,” he said.
“We have to tell the truth and it’s clear that disappoints them. I’m talking about a candidate from a Canadian university working in medical research, where [funding] was one of the clinchers.”
Additional reporting by Ian Sample and Alok Jha
Barack Obama rumoured to be about to name his new White House chief of staff as a limelight-averse problem solver
Barack Obama is poised to announce that he is entrusting the post of his chief of staff to a low-key White House insider following the announcement expected on Friday morning that Rahm Emanuel is to step down from the crucial role.
Peter Rouse, a cat-loving bachelor known for his aversion to the limelight together with his consummate skills as a problem solver, has been named by several news sources as Emanuel’s replacement.
The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, indicated that Obama would make a special “personnel announcement” in the East Room on Friday morning.
Gibbs declined to clarify the nature of the announcement, but it was assumed that it would combine Emanuel’s resignation and Rouse’s promotion.
The changeover comes at a singularly sensitive moment for the Obama administration, which is facing a likely beating at the polls when the mid-term elections are held on 2 November. Obama’s presidency has been suffering in recent months from sustained attacks from the revitalised
Republican right as well as widespread criticism that it is failing to win the public relations war.
Emanuel’s departure, triggered by his desire to run for mayor of his home town Chicago following Richard Daley’s decision not to seek re-election, gives Obama the opportunity to try a different tack. In Rouse, he has chosen a man renowned for his ability to get things done, through his organisational abilities but also a facility in securing agreement within a team.
Born and raised in Connecticut on the east coast, Rouse, 63, has spent most of his working life, bar a brief stint in Alaska, as a Washington animal.
As aide to the former Democratic leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle, he was given the moniker 101st Senator out of respect for his substantial influence.
When Daschle was ousted from his seat in 2004, Rouse had plans to retire but was enticed to stay on by Obama who had just joined the Senate as a newcomer.
According to the Anchorage Daily News,
Obama persuaded him to work for him partly with the promise that he had no intention of running for president in 2008. “So I thought,… how hard can this be?” Rouse told the newspaper.
Six years later Rouse is still by Obama’s side, and it seems that he has been persuaded for a second time. Early indications were that Rouse did not fancy the role of chief of staff and would only accept it on a temporary basis.
But it now appears that he has agreed to the gruelling position on an official basis.
He is likely to cut quite a different figure than Emanuel. The incumbent is a brash character famous for his plain speaking and liberal use of four-letter words.
Rouse by contrast is quietly spoken and invariably behind the scenes. Going on past record, he can be expected to run a tight and efficient ship in the White House, but whether he succeeds in helping Obama to overcome mounting suspicions among the American people over both his abilities and intentions remains to be seen.
International Labour Organization (ILO) notes that social unrest has already been reported in at least 25 countries
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned of growing social unrest as it now sees the recovery in global employment delayed until 2015.
This is two years later than its earlier estimate that the labour market would recover to pre-crisis levels by 2013. About 22 million new jobs are needed - 14 million in rich countries and 8 million in developing nations.
The United Nations work agency today warns of a long “labour market recession” and notes that social unrest related to the crisis has already been reported in at least 25 countries, including some recovering emerging economies.
Crisis-hit Spain faced its first general strike in eight years this week as unions protested against the government’s austerity measures and labour reforms. The strike on Wednesday coincided with protests in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Slovenia and Lithuania, as well as demonstrations in Brussels by tens of thousands of workers from across Europe as part of a European day of action against public spending cuts.
“Fairness must be the compass guiding us out of the crisis,” says ILO director general Juan Somavia. “People can understand and accept difficult choices, if they perceive that all share in the burden of pain. Governments should not have to choose between the demands of financial markets and the needs of their citizens. Financial and social stability must come together. Otherwise, not only the global economy but also social cohesion will be at risk.”
Raymond Torres, lead author of the ILO’s annual World of Work report, published today, warns governments against withdrawing fiscal stimulus measures while the economic recovery is still weak.
Torres says two main reasons explain the bleaker outlook facing many countries: “The first is that fiscal stimulus measures that were critical in averting a deeper crisis and helped jump-start the economy are now being withdrawn in countries where recovery, if any, is still too weak,” he said. “The second, and more fundamental factor is that the root causes of the crisis have not been properly tackled”.
The global economy has started growing again with encouraging signs of employment recovery especially in some emerging economies in Asia and Latin America, the ILO says. “Despite these significant gains … new clouds have emerged on the employment horizon and the prospects have worsened significantly in many countries,” it adds.
Since the crisis started in 2007, some 30-35 million jobs have been lost worldwide. The ILO forecasts that global unemployment will hit 213 million this year, a rate of 6.5%. For the United States, the number of jobs still needed to regain pre-crisis levels is 6.9 million.
Many countries that experienced employment growth at the end of 2009 are now seeing the jobs recovery weaken. Even among people with jobs, satisfaction at work has deteriorated significantly with a sense of unfairness seen in 46 of 83 countries.
“The longer the labour market recession, the greater the difficulties for jobseekers to obtain new employment,” the ILO report says. “In the 35 countries for which data exists, nearly 40% of jobseekers have been without work for more than one year and therefore run significant risks of demoralisation, loss of self-esteem and mental health problems. Importantly, young people are disproportionately hit by unemployment.”
The ILO recommends three policies for a jobs-led recovery:
• Active labour market policies including work-sharing that target vulnerable groups such as young people, and training;
• A closer link between wages and productivity gains in surplus countries to boost demand and job creation;
• Financial sector reform to ensure savings are channelled to productive investment and the creation of more stable jobs.
Guardian/ICM poll: Labour opens up two-point lead as cuts hurt coalition but survey reveals scale of new leader’s task
• Datablog: full Guardian/ICM poll data going back to 1984
Ed Miliband ends his first week as Labour leader with his party ahead of the Tories in a Guardian/ICM poll for the first time since Gordon Brown ducked the chance of holding an election in 2007.
But the two-point lead is the result of a slump in Conservative support rather than any surge in Labour backing and the poll suggests voters are giving Miliband a wary rather than an enthusiastic welcome.
The results will offer him a morale boost at the end of a tumultuous week but they also suggest that many Labour supporters are yet to see their new leader as a potential prime minister, and that his brother David might have attracted more support in the short term.
The poll also shows that the public mood is swinging against the scale and speed of spending cuts, with 43% now saying the cuts have gone too far compared with the 37% who think the balance is right. By contrast, in July 39% thought the balance right, and 38% said too far.
Carried out after Miliband’s conference speech, but largely before his brother announced he was pulling out of the shadow cabinet, today’s poll puts Labour on 37%, unchanged on last month. The Conservatives have dropped two points to 35% – down from a post-election high of 41% in June – and the Liberal Democrats are unchanged on 18%.
All three parties can draw comfort from these figures, although the Tories may be dismayed to see their poll rating drop further even before next month’s announcement of deep spending cuts.
There has been a shift of opinion in Labour’s favour since May, with support up almost eight points at the expense of the Lib Dems. Almost one in four people who voted Lib Dem are now thinking of voting Labour instead.
Nick Clegg will be relieved, however, that today’s ICM poll does not find the collapse in third party support shown in online polls. Lib Dem support is unchanged on the level in September 2009.
Labour’s new leader has so far had little chance to make an impression. Among definite Labour voters only 52% say Ed Miliband would make the best prime minister of the three party leaders while 24% name David Cameron. By contrast, 89% of Conservatives pick Cameron. More Lib Dem voters also back Cameron as a competent prime minister than back Clegg. Among all voters, 20% think Ed Miliband would make the most competent prime minister, compared with 47% who say Cameron and 10% Clegg.
Today’s poll finds a marginal preference among voters for David Miliband over his brother. Most voters say that the arrival of either of the brothers would have made no difference to their attitude. But among those who say the choice does make a difference, positive support for Ed outweighs negative by one point. For David, the positive lead would have been nine points – with people who voted Conservative in the general election among those more attracted to the defeated candidate.
There is evidence that voters see the man denounced by his press enemies as “Red Ed” as more leftwing than Tony Blair or Gordon Brown. Asked whether they think Ed Miliband will take the party to the left, the right or make no difference, 28% say to the left against 41% who think he will keep it in the centre and only 8% to the right. Labour supporters who think the party will move to the left overwhelmingly welcome the possibility. So do many Lib Dems: 61% of those who believe Labour will shift to the left support the move.
Despite anxiety about cuts, the coalition remains trusted overall on the economy. Asked, regardless of their own loyalties, whether they think the government or Labour is best placed to ensure a prosperous future, 50% pick the coalition and 31% Labour. But some former Lib Dem voters are having second thoughts about their party’s policies now it is in power: 24% of the people who voted for the party in May now back Labour’s economic plans.
The idea of coalition government appeals to many but most would still like to see their own party in power. Of the likely outcomes at the next election, 26% think Labour on its own would be best for Britain, 19% the Conservatives on their own, 21% a continued Con-Lib coalition and 13% a Labour-Lib Dem deal.
Only 50% of Tory supporters want their party to rule alone, while 41% want coalition with the Lib Dems, which suggests Cameron will face little dissent from the grassroots at conference next week.
• ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,005 adults aged 18+ by telephone on 28-29 September 2010. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
Report also attacked by Rwanda and Burundi whose armies are accused of committing hundreds of atrocities from 1993 to 2003
Uganda has joined Rwanda and Burundi in attacking a controversial United Nations report due to be published today that details alleged war crimes committed by their armies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The report covers the conflicts in Congo between 1993 and 2003 and chronicles hundreds of atrocities involving outside forces.
In an early version leaked in August, Ugandan troops were accused of massacring and torturing civilians in several locations. The draft document said the slaughter in Congo of tens of thousands of Hutus by Rwandan troops seeking to avenge the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in their country, could be classified as “crimes of genocide”.
But in a letter to the UN, made public yesterday, Uganda’s foreign affairs minister, Sam Kutesa, dismissed the report as “a compendium of rumours deeply flawed in methodology, sourcing and standard of proof”.
“Uganda rejects that draft report in its entirety and demands that it not be published,” he wrote.
Kutesa said the allegations could make Uganda rethink its commitment to international peacekeeping missions, including in Somalia where its troops form the backbone of the African Union force.
The threat echoed an earlier warning from Rwanda – later withdrawn – that it would pull its troops out of peacekeeping missions, including in Darfur where it pays a key role, if the report was published without amendments.
The Rwandan reaction caused the UN to postpone publication to allow the countries accused of crimes to air their responses alongside the final version. Burundi had also demanded that the allegations against its army be withdrawn.
The delay led to fears among human rights activists that the report would be watered down by the UN for political reasons, with the highly sensitive allegations of possible genocide against Rwanda dropped.
But yesterday the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, whose office compiled the report, said the final version would have no significant changes and that “the substance remains the same”.
According to the Associated Press, a leaked copy of the final report revealed that the UN rewrote some sensitive sections, but left intact allegations of genocide.
Despite the changes, the Rwandan foreign affairs minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, said the document was “flawed and dangerous from start to finish”.
Ugandan troops entered Congo in 1997, backing rebels who had toppled the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, and stayed in parts of the country until 2003. UN investigators, who carried out their fieldwork in 2008 and 2009 with the aim of highlighting previously undocumented crimes, said in their draft report that Ugandan troops had committed multiple war crimes, highlighting a “reign of terror” in a Congolese town that lasted several weeks.
“They carried out summary executions of civilians, arbitrarily detained large numbers of people and subjected them to torture and various other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments,” the report said.
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